2 Keys to Embracing Who You Are

Embracing who you are is one of the hardest but most important things that we can do as a human person.

Who am I? Do I matter? What do I have to offer? Am I important, valued, loved?

Self-doubt and the eternal love-hate relationship with ourselves colors every aspect of our lives. If we could resolve it, it would resolve everything – from depression and bullying, to suicide and gender confusion.

Could the solution be simpler than we think?

We are CALLED to love Ourselves

Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself”.All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. – Matthew 37:40

Obviously, if we are told to love our neighbor as ourselves, we must be called to have some kind of self-love. But, it isn’t necessarily supposed to be an effusive, feel-good love. You aren’t called to be “in love” with yourself, but to respect yourself as someone with value and purpose. You are called to treat yourself and others with dignity and act out of desire to do what is BEST for yourself and others regardless of what is COMFORTABLE.

How to see Yourself as God sees You

In the end, there are two parts to embracing who you are:

Embracing your purpose (role)
Embracing your belovedness (value)

1) Embracing your Purpose

It is clear to most that finding purpose is a key to self-acceptance, but they aren’t sure how to implement it. This is why so many people fight to find their worth in what they do. But, the problem arises when, they have chosen to give themselves purpose and try to create their own worth. You can really tell when this happens because it typically leads to workaholism, burnout, and emptiness even once goals are accomplished.

The difference between Action and Being

Our worth does not have to be EARNED. All this work to try to prove yourself worthy of respect and admiration usually only leads to a lonely, pitiable life.

Yes, you have a purpose that gives you value, but that purpose isn’t one you invented… but one that is given.

This is why being is so much more important, initially, than DOING.

BEING is a process of letting go, stepping back, and discovering. It is a process first of recognizing that, first, you have to BE YOU before you can do anything as yourself.

[tweetshare tweet=”Being, by definition, is prior to and so much more fundamental than action.” username=”CarolynMPereira”]

Are you doing too much? Trying too hard? – Try the Martha and Mary test to see if your priorities are where they should be.

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Particularly CALLED

You, Dear Heart, are CALLED. Called to sit at the feet of Our Lord and have Him teach you who you are. You are CALLED to be filled before you are sent out. Your mission and purpose will not become clear until you are READY to undertake them.

So maybe you don’t know your purpose yet, and it makes you feel like you have no value…

2) Embracing your Belovedness (Value)

Your worth is not found in what you do.

Yes, we act, and our purpose gives us a sense of worth, but above all, we are valuable simply because we are loved.

Being ourselves means recognizing that we are loved, allowing ourselves to be loved, basking in it.

Are you maybe fighting the fact that you are loved? Somehow telling yourself that you are unworthy or unlovable?

The “Lovability Scale”

Have you created some kind of “lovability scale” in you heart where you think maybe you are tolerated, but not so much “liked”, and much less loved. No, it’s not like that at all. Your worth is the worth of a child who can “do no wrong”, or the worth of a perfect harmony to a heavenly melody. Your value is what you would notice if your favorite band were missing your favorite instrument, or if an orchestra were missing the cello.

You are irreplaceable and incomparable to anything else in existence. But you cannot know this, or feel this outside of a Relationship with God.

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What happens when you Embrace who You Are?

When we finally manage to Embrace our TRUE purpose and the fact that we are truly beloved, all the pieces start to come together.

Sufferings. Trials. Failures. Successes. Preferences. Talents. Obsessions. Joys.

Suddenly everything makes sense. Suddenly our past fits into our future and we are free – from questions, doubts, regrets, and anxieties – free to be US!